I suspect that there will be several trip reports posted to CaveTex from all of the Thanksgiving caving that went on. But I wanted to beat the rush with a slightly older report, from a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!
-- Jim Project date: 11–13 November 2011 Reported by: Jim Kennedy Report date: 28 November 2011 Person-hours: 269 hours (151 work, 118 travel) Personnel: (27 folks) Don Arburn, Yazmin Avila, Laurie Culbert, Andy Edwards, Angela Edwards, Galen Falgout, Mark Gee, Natasha Glasgow, Lee Jay Graves, Scott Grimes, C. P. Jerome, Rafal Kedzierski, Jim Kennedy, Maya Liu, Ryan Monjaras, Kris Peña, William Quast, Rob Reasor, Rachel Saker, Scott Serur, Bryce Smith, James Taylor, Julie Taylor, Heather Túček, Matt Turner, Nicholas Yasui, Andy Zenker After cancelling the October Project weekend due to scheduling conflicts, everybody was anxious to get back to the Park in November. We had a great turnout, wonderful weather, and some highly productive teams. Team 1 Andy Edwards, Kris Peña, William Quast, Heather Túček William and Kris were eager to return to Dog and Butterfly Cave (SAB197) to survey the new passages seen that were not on the old map. Heather and Andy were recruited, and after Andy borrowed Galen’s vertical gear, they went directly to the cave. After some initial exploration, including digging through two low crawls to create a loop, they decided to start the survey from the surface, resurveying the couple of shots that made up the old map. An initial climbdown lead to a 8.5m (28–foot) pit with they rigged to natural anchors. In the first level above the 8.5m drop they saw a porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum). They surveyed fifteen shots for 64.4m, which is already 59.2m longer than the previous survey. On the next trip they plan to survey down the 8.5m pit, through the next level, and into a newly-discovered pit for which a second rope is needed. Team one’s hours: 30.0 Team 2 Yazmin Avila, Natasha Glasgow, Jim Kennedy, Andy Zenker Jim and Yaz showed up in camp early Saturday morning and got everyone signed in and divided into teams. After dropping off the paperwork at the Park office, the foursome headed out to Lively Pasture for the now-familiar hike to the Lost Petzl Cave System (SAB075). They immediately started rigging the Chimniers Delight Entrance (SAB075h) and geared up. The drop from this rig point is awkward at the top, but conveniently takes you the whole way to the stream level passages. Everyone stashed their gear at the bottom of the drop and made their way downstream to tackle more unsurveyed leads. About a dozen tri-colored bats (Parastrellus subflavus) were noted in this section of the cave. They picked up the survey at one of Jim’s old stations, and made some easy shots down a nice-sized tube. This eventually turned into wide, flat infeeder with flowstone and filtered out Jim. Andy took advantage of the easy nature of the passage to keep book and practice his sketching. While the three skinnies finished the infeeder, Jim dug through some silt fill and connected to the survey crew on the other side of the flowstone. He and Yaz enlarged a helmet sized wall opening to allow the rest of the crew to continue their survey and make a nice loop. After a much-needed lunch and pee break, the crew continued the survey through another restriction to the cave’s drain, an impassable rock-and gravel choke. A few additional shots were completed before heading back to the vertical gear and rope via another unsurveyed route. Eight hours were spent in the cave and 22 shots were made, for a total of 78.8m. The next trip we hope to have both a digging team and a survey team. Team two’s hours: 36.0 Team 3 Don Arburn, Lee Jay Graves, Maya Liu, Nicholas Yasui This group went to the McLarren Fissure area to look for more caves and check GPS coordinates on known caves. Lots of features were found and checked out, but a lot more work needs done in this area to sort out what is what. A lot of the features don’t have coordinates yet, or entrance tags. The group eventually got to Kick-ASS Cave (SAB 616), and found the coordinates to be correct. A six-meter canyon led to a hidden way on to an active stream passage with soda straws and about a dozen bats (most likely tri-colored bats). It has multiple leads, and has not yet been surveyed. New caver Maya enjoyed herself, and plans to return. Team three’s hours: 22.0 Team 4 Angela Edwards, Galen Falgout, Ryan Monjaras, Matt Turner This group also spent much of the day on the surface, hiking around the McLarren Fissure area. They visited Honeycomb Fissure (SAB158), got corrected coordinates at Meander Tube Fissure (SAB 328) and verified that it is a multi-entrance cave, visited Carrot Cave (SAB 671), found a new feature called Whoop Ass Fissure (no SAB number yet) with multiple entrances, and re-GPSed both entrances to an unmapped cave (SBK 059). Afterwards, they took a delightful hike to Gorman Falls. Team four’s hours: 16.0 Team 5 Laurie Culbert, Scott Serur (and maybe the Aggies? Whose team were they on, anyway?) Scott and Laurie (and some unnamed others, maybe the Aggies [Jerome, Reasor, Taylor, and Taylor]?) targeted Roofless Cave (no SAB number yet) as their objective. Scott found a way to free-climb the cave’s entrance. He worked for a couple of hours on a lead at the bottom, and eventually broke through to some nice tube. This cave still needs mapped. Afterwards, they hooked up with Team 6 and continued ridgewalking in the area. Team five’s hours: 12.0 (maybe more) Team 6 Mark Gee, Scott Grimes, Rafal Kedzierski, Rachel Saker, Bryce Smith This last team was part of the cast of thousands that ended up hiking around the McLarren Fissure area. It was a perfect day for it. The team first went to a cave found in April, Creekside Sink (no SAB number yet) and reported a 4 meter tight fissure with an abandoned beehive and bones on the floor. They then went to nearby SAB 378, formerly called GPC002 karst feature, but now mapped and renamed Pop the Cherry Cave. Next they went to Cody Well (no SAB number yet). It has a small oval entrance, about 0.5m in diameter, and drops 5m to a small crawl for another 2.5m. It remains to be mapped. Walking toward the Colorado River cliffs, they then discovered Blood and Guts Cave (no SAB number yet). The originally tight entrance was enlarged enough for the teem to look in. It looks like there is a 10m drop to a 2.5m wide room, but needs rope. Next they came to Whoop ASS Cave, but it is uncertain whether this team or Turner’s team found it first. Finally they found Deep Dream Cave (no SAB number yet). It is near the property line, and so far is the most northeasterly cave in the Park on the San Saba County side. It was estimated at 24m deep, and a rope is most likely necessary. Team six’s hours: 35.0
